Friday, 16 November 2012

Julie Feeney

With her debut album 13 Songs, Julie
Feeney was a surprising but deserving winner of the inaugural Choice
Music Prize. Her follow-up, the hauntingly beautiful pages was
greeted with similar critical acclaim and cemented the singers stake
as an Irish indie icon.

Ahead of the release of her third album
Clocks, it seems fair to assume that Feeney might be feeling a bit of
pressure, but surprisingly that doesn't seem to be the case.

“Bizzarely I was least afraid on this
one. I just felt more honest on this one. The first two albums had
the response that you said which has been great. Since the second
album the live aspect has become a whole annal of itself” she says.

“That's where I have contact with
people on a regular basis and see how they are responding. So based
on that I wasn't as much thinking about what I needed to do to get
the same response for this one because I just love it, I've been
enjoying it so much”.

And as she lets the response from her
live shows inform her new record, Feeney has also been working on
improving her live performance, taking inspiration from her myriad of
other interests.

“The wonderful thing about doing
music is that it's constantly changing, it's evolving all the time.
For the first album I performed live fine, but I don't think I was
particularly amazing. I used to do other live things like
contemporary dance and alternative theatre”.

“Then I realised 'Hang on, why do you
have all these things in boxes? Just go out and perform and be all
the things you are all in one'. It's more about that it just changes
and you've got to change with it and in that way you develop”.

For her upcoming tour in support of
Clocks, Feeney has developed a hugely ambitious live project. Over
ten consecutive nights she will be performing in ten different venues
with ten locally based choirs.

“I love choral voices. I was a
professional choral singer for five years. I worked a lot with
orchestras but I hadn't as much gotten into choirs. So this was my
chance and by God I've gotten into it now. We've found some really
fantastic choirs and really great directors. Each of them are doing
about seven or eight pieces. It's been a fantastic experience for me,
you really get into the fabric of a town as well”.

Feeney says her latest album will touch
on elements of her first two records, with new influences from her
time spent in America. She also feels that this is her most
emotionally honest and raw record to date.

“It's sort of a mixture of the two.
There's a lot more naked feeling in it. I think the emotion is more
bare. I've been less afraid to lay bare emotionally. Musically
there's a much broader range of instruments. There's a slightly more
Americana feel on some of them. That's because I was spending time in
America, appreciating being from Galway. You appreciate where you're
from more when you're away, especially in America where the Irish
identity is such a complex thing”.